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Woman suffers amnesia after sex

An American woman has told how she suffered amnesia after making love with her husband.

TGA or 'transient global amnesia' occurs after a person takes part in a strenuous activity, such as exercising, suddenly plunging into icy cold or very hot water, or having sex.

The 59-year-old woman, known only as Alice, suffered the short-term - and thankfully temporary - memory loss after she had sex with her husband, Scott, one morning last August.

Mind-blowing: Sex can be the trigger for a neurological condition known as TGA, which results in temporary short-term memory loss

Immediately afterwards, Alice suddenly felt very disorientated.

As Scott watched Olympics coverage on television, his perplexed wife asked him what was going on. 'Is there an Olympics?' she said.

On seeing that something was wrong, he asked her what day it was but this seemed to puzzle her even more.

In another attempt to find out what had confused his wife, he asked: 'Who's our president?'

When Alice answered 'Bill Clinton', a concerned Scott immediately called the emergency services.

Attending paramedics suspected a stroke and Alice was rushed to hospital.

Doctors diagnosed TGA, a rare neurological condition that usually occurs in patients aged over 50.

Following an attack, sufferers usually know their identities, but cannot recall where they are and how they got there.

Patients with a history of migraines and headaches are more likely to suffer from TGA.

Alice told CNN: 'I remember the previous night going to sleep with a subtle headache and not taking anything for it.

'And apparently, the next morning, my husband and I had intercourse. From what I found out, there was an orgasm.'

Leading stroke expert Louis Caplan said: 'One of the things people have done to look at transient global amnesia is to look at frequency of various precipitants and sex always comes out as one of the most common.'

In most cases, TGA occurs just once, but can become recurrent.

'It's not enough of a stimulus or deprivation that it permanently injures the brain. The brain recovers,' said Mr Caplan. 'There should be no deficit other than memory and it should be brief.'

Although Alice recovered fully, she still cannot remember what happened that morning.

'I was lucky because nothing bad came of it,' said Alice. 'I wasn't frightened. My husband and family were frightened. I was totally out to lunch.'

On being told how she had ended up in hospital, Alice quipped: 'Let me get this straight. We had sex. I wind up in the hospital and I can't remember anything? You owe me a 30-carat diamond!'

Scott said: 'On the one hand, it was very funny. We were hysterical. It was scary as all hell.'